Casual Brewing with Amonkhet: The Noose is Loose

The Amonkhet Prerelease took place last weekend where we all got our hands on some sweet cards from the latest, Egyptian-themed set, and now it’s time to try and put them to good use. I’d like to spotlight a few Amonkhet cards that piqued my interest because they possess unique effects we previously did not have access to in Standard. They’re mainly cards to build around and the resulting decks are not supposed to be highly competitive Standard decks, but rather meant for the more casual mages among us. With that being said, it’s time to get strapped in as Brewforce One is fully fueled and ready for takeoff!

One of the first cards that stood out to me was Shadow of the Grave, offering us an effect that can either be broken or completely useless. The card is quite restrictive when it comes to deck-building and it does take some setup, but you do get to reap the rewards if you manage to make it work.

As you can see, the list includes quite a few fun-ofs just for the sake of giving them a try. Fateful Showdown does combine nicely with Flameblade Adept and Shadow of the Grave, but at four mana it seems quite clunky and it might be difficult to still have a relevant number of cards in hand when you get to cast it. I imagine Collective Defiance is just the better option.

The current mana-base could use some work, as many lands enter the battlefield tapped and make it difficult to curve out. It’s possible that a red-green aggressive deck would just be better than trying to go for the fancy wins with Shadow of the Grave.

The complete pinnacle of hubris would be to merge these two decks into a four-color Noose Constrictor / Shadow of the Grave / Shadow of the Grave combo deck, and while I usually have no problems with building non-functional decks, I will have to leave that deck up to your imagination, as I envision quite a few difficulties when trying to make the mana work in our four-color aggressive-combo deck.

While all of this does sound quite simple in theory, there are a few problems when it comes to putting it all into practice. You absolutely need to find New Perspectives for the deck to do anything at all (you can try Shefet Monitor beatdown, but that does not seem too promising) and sometimes you won’t be able to find it in time. Once you have New Perspectives in hand, you will need to get to six mana without dying and it will also be really difficult to beat any sort of counter spell from your opponent. There is also the risk of all your copies of Shadow of the Grave being stuck near the bottom of your deck. But if you manage to clear all these hurdles, you do get to draw your whole deck and let the Noose loose.

These were a few, fresh Amonkhet brews that caught my attention. Feel free to let me know what Amonkhet cards and decks you have been brewing with!